IMMIGRATION

Within Strict Father morality, illegal immigrants are seen as lawbreakers ("illegals") who should be punished. People who hire them are just pursuing their self-interest, as they should, and so are doing nothing wrong. From the perspective of the Nation As Family metaphor, illegal immigrants are not citizens, hence they are not children in our family. To be expected to provide food, housing, and health care for illegal immigrants is like being expected to feed, house, and care for other children in the neighborhood who are coming into our house without permission. They weren't invited, they have no business being here, and we have no responsibility to take care of them.

From the perspective of Nurturant Parent morality, powerless people with no immoral intent are seen as innocent children needing nurturance. For the most part, illegal immigrants fall into this category.

Illegal immigrants are seen as innocent poor people looking for a better life who are often exploited, for example, when they are lured or brought into the U.S. by employers who are willing to break the law to increase their profit. The stigma of illegality and the enforcement of the law should, in such cases, focus on law-breaking employers.

Illegal immigrants typically perform low-status tasks cheaply that citizens will not do for those wages: farm, sweatshop, and restaurant labor, housecleaning, childcare, gardening, odd jobs, and so on. They are a necessary part of the economy, keeping farm and garment-making profits high and food and clothing costs low. They allow families in the middle class and above to have two-job households by providing housecleaning, childcare, gardening, cheap fast food, and so on. When they do this, they support the lifestyles of better-off people, providing an important service to a great many people. They increase the nation's tax base by permitting middle-class families to have two incomes and allowing many industries to make high profits that are subject to taxation. Out of fairness, they deserve to be compensated for their low pay by having their basic needs guaranteed. Since illegal immigrants historically have become citizens, they should be seen as citizens in the making.

Through the Nation As Family metaphor, they are seen as children who have been lured or brought into the national household and who contribute in a vital way to that national household. You don't throw such children out onto the street. It would be immoral.

Here we can see the Nation As Family metaphor playing a critical and almost direct role in the form of reasoning.

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